'I lost the most precious people'

Survivors, rescued by Egyptian Coast Guard members from a boat submerged on its way to Europe at the Mediterranean Sea.

Two minutes after jumping in the water he saw the boat capsize. His wife and two children were still on board.

By the time he found them, they were dead.

"I tried to pull them with me to take them out with me. But I couldn't," he says from his hospital bed.

"I lost the most precious people in my life."

On Wednesday, when the boat capsized off the coast of Rashid -- also known as Rosetta -- 163 survivors were found, along with 42 dead bodies. The death toll rose above 100 on Friday, according to Egyptian state media.

Morgue overwhelmed

Death has overwhelmed this coastal town, where the Nile River meets with the Mediterranean. The river bank is lined with shipyards, ferries and docking stations. Ambulance sirens break the calm of the fishing town surrounded by green fields.

The morgue at the Rashid General Hospital only has room for eight bodies. The dozens more that have arrived on its doorstep have been sent to other hospitals in Beheira Province and nearby Alexandria.

Egyptian men sit along the shore in the Egyptian port city of Rosetta on September 22, 2016 as they watch a boat departing for a search operation.

"We are used to three, four or five bodies found. But we haven't seen this before. This is a disaster," Mohamed Abu Arab, a fisherman, told CNN.

Most of those on board the doomed boat were Egyptians who had been tempted by friends who successfully made the journey before them. There were also Sudanese, Eritreans and Syrians.

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A military spokesman declined to comment Friday. But the Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told CNN on Thursday that the navy had been "diligent over the past few days in providing safety for those who are embarking on this dangerous route of illegal immigration."

All the survivors interviewed by CNN said they were rescued by fishermen.

'I looked behind once'

When the boat first capsized, Ahmed Mohamed, a 27-year-old survivor, said he felt helpless and horrified. He couldn't look back at the tragedy unfolding.

"I looked behind once," he says from the sunny hospital room he has been sharing with six other survivors. "It was a disturbing sight. No one can tolerate that. You can't do anything, so you shouldn't look."

But that didn't stop him from trying rescue his fellow passengers.

Mohamed says he saw a dead body hanging on a life preserver, so he took the life preserver and gave it to a 19-year-old Syrian woman, who appeared as though she was about to faint.

27-year-old survivor Ahmed Mohamed recovers in hospital.

He then saw a child floating on water and tied him to his body.

Eight hours later, when they were spotted by another boat, the child was dead.

The woman, who lost both of her parents, survived.

Mohamed had kept her afloat the entire time, pushing her with one arm and using the other to swim.